Barefoot in Brisbane

I did a long hike around Mt Coot-Tha this morning, wearing Merrell trail gloves mostly because it's steep and my calluses aren't yet ready for that punishment. The last few km is not so steep, so off with the shoes and a run to the end. It was a hot morning but the ground was cool on my feet. Mmmm lovely!
 

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I put this in the weekly miles thread but have decided to track my true barefoot runs here so copy/paste...

"That short trail run yesterday felt so good I decided to go again this morning. I picked a less steep trail and left the shoes at home. I've walked and run this area in my trail gloves many times but today was my first trail run being fully barefoot. That was 4 hours ago and my feet are still on fire. The foot muscles seem strong enough but even after all my barefoot activities, the soles felt too soft. This track has lots of sharp stones and it was a lesson in keeping the knees bent and treading carefully. The difference between somewhat minimal shoes and actual barefoot is amazing. The uphills were easy. The downhills were tentative. The flats were glorious. It was a fun 5km and I will do it again next time."
 
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That run felt great at the time but I ended up with some bruises from the sharp rocks.

I have relaxed, massaged and stretched my feet all week and recovered enough to a few km barefoot in the local park today. it felt good.

Tomorrow morning I'll do that 5km trail again but will wear my trail gloves for the short section right at the start/end where I hurt myself last time.
 
yesterday morning i ran 7.9km of trails, up & over our local mountain then back again.
the first and last 150m are painfully stony so that was in my trail gloves.
that makes it 7.6km barefoot on the trails.

it was my longest barefoot trail run so far and my feet are bruised and sore.
do stones on the trail ever get less painful?
 
Hello Peter, per my experience you will tolerate more the stones, specially the small ones, I ‘ve only been running BF for a year now and I can see a small but significant improvement, I do hope that with the years maybe someday we could run entirely BF over those small stones, the big ones are not a problem, you can always avoid them.

Regards...
 
Last weekend I missed putting anything in. The week before, I had bruised under my right heel when I hit a rock stepping around someone taking up most of the path. Mostly because of the heel but also because my feet were just felt too tender to hit the trails again, I just did a nice 5.7k on the local bike track and in the local park. It's not a run that I enjoy but was ok.
 
This week I've been moving a lot barefoot but not much running. About 5km each morning and evening, walking barefoot around the local parks, balancing on some posts, walking along some low rails at the edge of the park, leaping from one rail to the next, stopping, balancing, doing squats while balancing on them. They are made from logs about 15cm (6in) diameter so work the feet a bit while landing and balancing, especially the round topped poles which give the feet a workout. There were a bunch of people playing soccer and one of the kids ran up and joined me balancing on the rails. That was all quite fun but is it on topic for this forum?
 
no I haven't tried them. I had to give up barefoot for quite a while because when I switched from my merrell trail gloves to properly barefoot I started to develop Morton's Neuroma (is that the right spelling?). My feet feel better after much rest and work so I'm going to give it another try and am considering some sandals to see if that helps this time